Archive of Our Own ^beta

Chapter Text

Crystal was very active on stan Twitter. Being an outcast at school with only friendly acquaintances, she used the website almost constantly to fill her need for the social interaction she was not getting in person. 

She had tried to put herself out there in the past and make her own friends instead of trying to tag along when her half-sister would hang out with her friends, but it was hard for Crystal to make meaningful connections. The only thing she had in common with her classmates was that they both spent the majority of their day in the same building.

That being said (and despite her high screen time), the brunette didn’t have a set group of Twitter friends yet. She was very friendly with all of her mutuals, having conversations on the timeline with a handful of them, but she had yet to make a deeper connection with anyone even though she wanted to.

She had thought about giving up trying to let an online friendship come to her naturally and just join a group chat, but they made her feel anxious. From her understanding, there could be a total of forty accounts in one group chat, and the thought of meeting forty new people at once was overwhelming to her.

Crystal had spent an hour one night weighing the pros and cons of possibly joining one. In the end, her desire for friendship beat out her anxiety. Her only friend was her older half-sister, and as much as she loved Daya, she had a feeling deep down that Daya preferred the company of the friends she had that were her own age.

It sucked. Crystal was tired of her social media being dry all the time, notifications only appearing when a member of One Direction would tweet or when the Latina tweeted something funny and got a handful of likes and a retweet if she was lucky. She promised herself she would go out of her comfort zone and would retweet the next group chat tweet she saw. 

Possibly.

Maybe. 

Surely the anxiety she would feel from putting herself out there would be worth it if she was able to befriend someone.

The week went by, and Crystal spent most of her free time scrolling, but she hadn’t encountered a single ‘retweet to be in a group chat’ tweet. She thought that maybe it was a sign that she had yet to see one after she had made the promise to herself.

The brunette had made an attempt to interact with the mutuals she felt like she replied to the most, but things continued to hit a dead end. She wasn’t ready to give up quite yet, but she was rapidly approaching that point.

Daya sneaking back into the house from God-knows-where at six in the morning had woken Crystal up and her attempts of returning to her dream where she was backstage at a Harry Styles concert failed miserably. 

She followed people from lots of different time zones, but as Crystal tried to find entertainment on the cherished bird app since she was up for the day, no one had posted anything in the last fifteen minutes. The lack of things to look at on her phone inspired her to get out her laptop and work on a story she had to write for her creative writing class that she had been procrastinating on. 

Working on her assignment killed nearly two hours, and Crystal ended up liking the silly story she wrote more than she thought she would have. Deserving a much-needed break from working on it, the brunette opened the Twitter app, hoping that more of her mutuals would be online.

Scrolling through a few ‘good morning’ tweets, Crystal finally found what she had been after all week.

jan! • @arisjantasy

rt to be in a random group chat <3

mutuals only! just be nice! :)

adding the first 10 people who rt!

There were 6 retweets already, so she hit the button as fast as she could to reserve her spot. Jan was an Ariana Grande fan and while the brunette couldn’t name three Ariana songs, Jan was very nice; possibly the nicest mutual the Latina had ever made. If Crystal was forcing herself to join a group chat, one made by Jan would be ideal.

Nervous, Crystal continues to scroll through her timeline until she gets the notification that she’s been added to the group chat.

jan! has added you to a group.

jan!: hey guys!! :)

Crystal quickly types out an introduction and sends it. She doesn’t know what to say, but she figures she’ll try her best to make a good first impression.

crystal: hi <3 thank you so much for adding me. im crystal!

jaida: the queen of the gc has arrived. hi

crystal: hi jaida!

jan!: no problem, crystal. you seem very nice!

nicky: bonjour ;)

gigi: good morning everyone

gigi: nicky we get it ur french

nicky: sure. be anti french in here. i can expose our dms of you calling my accent hot xo

gigi: STOP TALKING.

nicky: ;)

Gigi was here? Crystal recognized her account right away, despite not following her. Jan would tweet screenshots of her and Gigi’s direct messages out of context a lot, and the brunette found them amusing. The most recent one she could remember was a screenshot of Gigi just discovering a ‘new’ timezone, Mountain Standard Time.  

Despite all of that, Gigi’s actual account came off as very intimidating. She somewhat reminded Crystal of the girls at school who would call her not-so-nice names, but she hoped Gigi wasn’t like that since she was close with sweet Jan, who didn’t have a mean bone in her body.

gigi: omg crystal hi

gigi: i don’t like 1d but u seem very nice it’s nice to meet u

Crystal supposed it was slightly embarrassing that she was a fan account for a band who had been broken up for seven years. She had lost hope that they would get back together ages ago, but she still kept up with all of them, even though it was clear who her favorite member was with her long-haired Harry icon. 

crystal: i can change that just give me a week SKSGFDS

jaida: i love zayn does that count

crystal: yes ma’am! he was a huge part of the band even though he left

jaida: he needs to tour. he is so sexy :/

jan!: he is…. i need him

jaida: ok? get in line

heidi: HEY! sorry i’m late!

jaida: oh, heidi made the cut?

heidi: 9th rt :)

jan!: jaida be nice :(( we have new people here

jaida: No <3

gigi: dont play fight yet ur scaring crystal!!!

heidi: well. in that case.

heidi: crystal, tell us about yourself

jaida: pls.. i’m sick of you guys.. i’m a crystal stan now

jan!: :((

jan!: but yes crystal pls!

She couldn’t remember the last time she had been asked that question. Crystal racked her brain for things she could say about herself that were interesting, but she felt like the message she sent was the most boring thing in the world.

crystal: let’s see.. im crystal, im 16, a lesbian. i stan 1d but especially harry, i like poppy and taylor swift too. i really like to paint in my free time!! and going thrifting!!

To her surprise, the group of girls actually showed interest in what she had to say, even though they weren’t into the things Crystal was into. There was a slight miscommunication where brunette did have to clarify that she wasn’t a fan of all of the weird shit Liam had been up to since the One Direction boys started their solo careers, but everything was going swimmingly.

Crystal wasn’t expecting to feel this included in the various conversations since it was incredibly clear they had an established group already. Them being interested in hearing about her, her interests and involving her in off topic conversations made her feel like she fit right in.

She really hoped they would end up liking her.

To Crystal’s surprise, the group chat was going strong a week later. They opened the Latina into their friend group with open arms, which Crystal was incredibly thankful for.

Crystal, Jan, Jaida, Heidi, Gigi and Nicky were the only ones who ended up talking in the group, so they decided to kick everyone else out. Jaida had the pleasure of renaming their group chat to “Gay People and Jan” after they downsized, which everyone found hilarious. (Crystal didn’t realize straight people were on stan Twitter.)

Crystal loved getting to know them all, but Gigi had to be her favorite. They had all shared fun facts about each other after Crystal did, and Gigi had revealed that she was also a lesbian but was only out online. She was a cheerleader who also loved all things fashion and design. Her account was very put together, filled with pictures of girls that Crystal would later find out are from America's Next Top Model.

Gigi fascinated Crystal. She was trying her best not to develop a crush on the girl, but the longer she remained in the group chat and the more she talked while Gigi was online, the more she liked her and wanted to talk to her.

The other girls were also pretty cool. Jan was also a cheerleader who had high energy constantly and loved to sing. Jaida competed in beauty pageants in her free time and also had the pleasure of being the funniest person in the group. Heidi jokingly referred to herself as a ‘gamer girl’, but really only played Animal Crossing: New Horizons and The Sims 4 and appeared to be the only girl in the group chat to have a girlfriend. Nicky lived in France and had an odd obsession with sheep. Why these girls wanted to talk to someone like Crystal, the brunette had yet to figure out.

The only problem was that the French girl flirted with Gigi a lot and Crystal couldn’t tell if they were a thing or not. Some of the things that Nicky would type felt too raunchy to just be a joke, but Crystal really couldn’t tell if they were official or not. She was also too scared to ask.

The thought of them being a couple made Crystal feel sick to her stomach. She couldn’t help but feel ridiculous for the feelings she was having: she had finally met a group of friends who were kind to her and now she felt uncomfortable because she had a crush on Nicky’s girlfriend?

Crystal tried to push these feelings to the side, thinking that maybe as she got to know Gigi better, she would learn something that made her not want to date the girl anymore. She was just relieved that the friendship was online and she could hide the fact that hearing Nicky say the most flirtatious things about Gigi upset her.  

As a force of habit, Crystal opened up the Twitter app on her way to school, seeing the last message to be sent was from Nicky, of course, at nearly three in the morning.

nicky: i think you’re all asleep for once due to the lack of noise.. weird and boring!

nicky: but anyway i hope you hoes have a good day <3

Crystal smiled and hearted the early morning message. She did think that Nicky was sweet, even under all of the jealousy she suddenly had for the girl.

crystal: someone wake up im boreeedddd

jan!: hey im in biology!! its sooo boring :(

crystal: im walking to school lol

gigi: good morning jan and crystal bbs <3

Crystal knew she didn’t mean it like that, but it still made her soul leave her body. Naturally, she exited Twitter. This was far too much for eight in the morning, far too early to address any of her feelings.

She had managed to go most of the morning without checking Twitter but eventually, after a bad encounter with one of the cheerleaders in her history class, Crystal gave in to her urges and checked her phone to try to cheer herself up.

Definitely a bad idea.

nicky: i want to post selfies bc i look very pretty today

nicky: you all will support yes?

heidi: yes!! anything for sheep girl

gigi: YES BABE!!!

gigi: you are one of the hottest women ever i want to eat your hair

heidi: gigi what the fuck

Babe? Hottest woman ever? Hair? Crystal wants to cry.

gigi: what? i do!

jaida: i need your beauty on my tl now

jan!: me when i see nicky: Wow i’m straight but that’s incredible

nicky: JAN STOP

crystal: yeah! i wanna see what you look like

Crystal feels stupid. She's known Gigi for a week; she doesn't even know what Gigi, let alone the rest of them look like. She thinks it's far too early to catch feelings for someone on Twitter, and far too early to be as upset as she was about it; yet, it’s happened.

Nicky posts her selfies, and as she replies with a compliment, Crystal quickly confirms that she’s one of the most gorgeous women on the planet. No wonder Gigi was probably dating her.

She goes back onto the timeline, only for it to be filled with nothing but Gigi hyping up Nicky. 

gigi • @campbellbitch

NICKY OH MY FUCJKING GO D??

gigi • @campbellbitch

MY LITERAL WIFE WTF

gigi • @campbellbitch

IM GAY!!!!!!

gigi • @campbellbitch

i need to consume you. sorry.

gigi • @campbellbitch 

i’m actually not sorry

Well, that confirmed what she had suspected. Gigi sent out five tweets when Jaida sent two and the rest of the girls sent out only one. It couldn’t be just a joke.

Getting home from school, the brunette was upset about another bad experience with a certain cheerleader and about Gigi and Nicky. She types out a somewhat dramatic tweet before throwing her phone on her desk, distracting herself with homework. She knows she shouldn’t tweet, now that she has friends who could potentially ask her to elaborate, but Crystal can’t bring herself to care.

crystal • @mitamcrystal

sad girl hours! laugh out loud 

She hears Daya come home from work as she finishes reading a chapter of her textbook, and debates going into her sister's room and asking her what to do. As she got up from her spot in her bed, she realized that she would have to admit to Daya that she has feelings for a faceless Twitter account she met online a week prior and went back to build a nest out of her comforter out of embarrassment. 

She managed to not go on any social media for the rest of the night but ended up checking her phone first thing in the morning out of habit. There were tons of messages from the group chat, as usual, but also a message outside of the group chat.

Seeing she had two messages instead of one excited her. She never had more than one message waiting for her. Crystal had finally got her first private message from one of her new friends!

And it’s from Gigi.

Chapter Text

gigi: hey i saw ur tweet, are u okay :( ily crystal and i’m here if u need to talk <3

Crystal felt her heart melt as she read the message. She was used to tweeting sad stuff with no response, and the fact that the girl she had been crushing on saw it and reached out made the Latina like her even more.

crystal: yeah i just got picked on by this cheerleader that doesn't like me and i was feeling bad about myself last night. i feel better now :)

Technically, she wasn’t lying. Crystal didn’t think it was too bad, considering she really only ever saw Dahlia in history class, but she still made it her mission to make that forty five minutes rough for the brunette whenever possible. This time it had been pushing all of Crystal's belongings off of her desk while she was leaving. Their teacher watched it happen, but as usual, he didn’t do anything about it.

She didn’t know what she had ever done to Dahlia. Crystal was basically invisible to her classmates and to the rest of the cheerleaders, so she didn’t understand why Dahlia and only Dahlia took notice of her and decided to target her. (Not that she wanted the rest of the cheerleaders to join in, of course!)

gigi: fuck. im sorry. some cheerleaders are just so weird!!!

crystal: it’s fine dskjdshjgkjf i wish all cheerleaders could take notes from you and jan

gigi: yaaas me and jan invented being nice

gigi: but i was also wondering if maybe you could teach me about one direction later tonight? ur so passionate when they’re brought up in conversation and there seems to be a lot of history with them

Crystal had tried to convince the group earlier in the week that One Direction was the best boy band ever and had only managed to get Jan to agree. She was glad that Gigi had finally come to her senses.

But hold on: Gigi thought she was passionate? Crystal had only been called things such as obsessive and creepy when she had brought up the band to people who weren’t Daya. It was basic kindness, but she was not used to it in the slightest.

crystal: finally changing your mind? amazayn!

gigi: i regret asking now. take that pun back to 2011!!!!

crystal: but you asked? :P kinda late for that

School was as dreadful as it always was for Crystal, but the fact that Gigi wanted to talk to her privately about her favorite band got her through the day with a grin on her face. The idea of talking to Gigi with no interruption of the other girls had been a secret little fantasy of Crystal’s, but she had been far too shy to start the process herself. 

By the time Crystal got home from school the chat was pretty active, but eventually died down at the end of the school day. Everyone seemed to have plans; Jan was studying, Jaida was going out to hang with friends, Nicky was sleeping, and Heidi was starting a new challenge on the Sims with her girlfriend, Rock, who had stolen Heidi’s phone beforehand to say hi to everyone. It appeared to be just her and Gigi, alone in the group chat. 

crystal: tictac heard my sister come home and DITCHED me in the middle of giving him pets. he is literally so rude. 

gigi: TICTAC!!!!! what a menace

crystal: i know :( i’m way cooler than her

gigi: also i’m finally home from practice omg. cheer is so fun but it’s so tiring sometimes

gigi: but i did see a girl wearing a harry styles shirt at school today. made me think of you :) 

Looking down at her own Harry Styles shirt, Crystal decided to bite the bullet and message Gigi privately, not wanting the rest of the girls to see her go into full stan mode. If someone asked Crystal about her interests, she could go on for hours before thinking of stopping herself.

crystal: ok miss gigi are you ready for your 1d crash course?

gigi: i am :) got my popcorn ready

Crystal told Gigi everything she wanted to know and even more. A history of how they got together, way too much information on each of the five boys, telling her the best songs on each album, and making sure that Gigi knew ‘Midnight Memories’ was their best album. 

gigi: but ur @ is dedicated to made in the am?? fraud!

crystal: HELPFDFHBJ

crystal: mmcrystal sounds weird… like no thanks 

gigi: i see

gigi: that was very interesting.. i’ll def listen to midnight memories in the morning <3 i do have to admit that the only 1d song i’ve heard multiple times is i wish. kinda sad that you called up all night their worst album  

crystal: OKAY LISTEN i wish is one of the best songs on uan but they have so many better songs. you’ll discover that when you listen to midnight memories

gigi: fiiiiine. and maybe if ur lucky i’ll listen to four and made in the am too

crystal: YAY! gigi 1d stan finally

gigi: no promises! :)

Even though she didn’t want the conversation to end there, Crystal didn’t respond to that because she did not know what to talk about now. Having a group of friends was slowly starting to help her be less awkward, but it definitely didn’t fix that problem completely. 

Sure, there were other things that Crystal could get into that weren't directly related to the band itself—such as her favorite fandom memes and inside jokes, but she had figured Gigi had heard enough about One Direction for the night.

gigi: do u wanna play 21 questions or something?? to get to know eachother better???

crystal: yeah!! of course.

It started off innocent. They discussed favorite candies and colors, nothing too interesting but Crystal still absorbed every little fact that Gigi told her. 

crystal: fave movie?

gigi: heathers!!! a classic

crystal: does this is us, the 1d documentary, also count as a classic?

gigi: u are so….

crystal: sooo…?

gigi: -_-

gigi: uhh… anyways… have u ever kissed a girl?

That was an odd question. Why would Gigi be remotely interested in the answer? She was most likely in a relationship and most likely hundreds of miles away from Crystal.

After convincing herself it didn’t matter, the brunette answered the question anyway. 

crystal: sadly no.. my state is full of straight people :(

gigi: same for the most part.. ur turn

crystal: this feels awkward to ask but uhhh….

As soon as Crystal hits send, she instantly regrets it. She backtracks what she had originally typed, desperately trying to come up with another question. Unfortunately, Crystal was not able to think of anything else that would be considered awkward enough to give a warning.

gigi: ????

“I guess I’ll have to do it,” Crystal says, talking to absolutely no one. She types out her burning question again, looking away from her phone as she tries to hit the send button, like it would help her situation be any less flustering for her.

crystal: how long have you and nicky been dating?

Would Gigi find it weird that she asked? Gigi was the one who brought up kissing girls, not Crystal, so it would be fine. Right?

gigi: CRYSTAL????? WHATBDGNHSDMFD

gigi: nicky and i are not dating omg im single

gigi: she’s like my sister. plus i would never do long distance

Crystal was so embarrassed. She was relieved this conversation was taking place through a screen, so Gigi wouldn’t see her blushing face. 

She was pleased that she was wrong about the two girls, but the other part of Gigi’s answer — her not being into long distance, was upsetting to Crystal.

crystal: so… you flirt with someone you see as your sister?

gigi: okay maybe not the best choice of words but it’s a very long story…. but i have no interest in dating nicky.

They asked a few more personal questions before Gigi started asking Crystal ‘would you rather’ questions instead. Crystal’s favorite out of them was if she would rather get a mullet or dress like a clown every day for the rest of her high school career. The answer was both, obviously. 

They spent the rest of the evening sending each other stupid questions, Crystal giggling to herself no matter how many times Daya banged on the wall they shared to get the Latina to be quiet. 

gigi: it’s really late and i have a test tomorrow so im gonna go to sleep. goodnight, cutie!

Gigi always would say ‘goodnight, bitch’, and the change in words made Crystal confused. The ongoing joke that lesbians had the hardest time telling if a girl is into them or not was one of Crystal’s favorites, but now she couldn’t help but wonder if that was exactly what was happening to her. There was obviously a connection between them, but it was unclear to Crystal if it was just platonic. 

It didn’t hit her until later that night while she was trying to fall asleep, but Crystal wasn’t entirely sure where Gigi lived. She knew they were in the same time zone, but wasn’t sure what state she was in. It was totally possible that Gigi also lived in Missouri, but Crystal highly doubted it. Though Gigi obviously trusted Crystal enough to want to play twenty one questions with her, she was still very private and closed up; Crystal wasn’t entirely sure if Gigi would tell her what state she was in. 

Crystal fell asleep thinking about her highly unrealistic perfect world, where Gigi lived in Missouri and where Crystal wasn’t just another Nicky. If it wouldn’t happen in real life, at least it could happen in her daydreams.

As usual, Crystal got onto Twitter right after waking up the next morning, ready to ask Gigi if she happened to live in Missouri. She checked the group chat first though, and quickly got distracted with a very interesting conversation that was going on.

jan!: now i may not be gay but i’m in love with a woman… 2 words jackie

jaida: ? that’s only one word

jan!: fuck

jan!: okay

heidi: the way i can’t tell if you're joking or not

jan!: the way i don’t think i am joking

gigi: YAAS about time u admitted that u like her

crystal: hold on i thought jan was straight?? who’s jackie???

nicky: do you really think a straight person would hang out with us?

crystal: good point…. 

jan!: I AM STRAIGHT! i think? i don’t know! i’m so confused. 

heidi: jackie is jan’s local btw @mitamcrystal 

gigi: jan be like: im straight.

gigi: but also jan is like: wow jackie is so pretty and she’s so funny and smart i’m going to fail geometry so she can tutor me but no homo!

heidi: the delusion janet has…

jaida: not to be serious but if you think you like jackie, you probably aren’t straight baby. everyone else hush and let her talk

nicky: ^^ yeah jan what happened

jan!: first of all i did not fail geometry i just said we should study together so we did!!! and have been for months! but last night i couldn’t focus at all bc she’s so pretty all i wanted to do was k*ss her out of nowhere?

heidi: you are not straight

In a way, Crystal could definitely relate. Gigi wasn’t her local, she still didn’t know what the girl looked like, but she still kind of wanted to kiss her. She couldn’t focus on anything besides Gigi sometimes, not like she would ever admit it. 

All of the girls had sent many comforting messages addressed to Jan, saying that it was okay, and she has all the time she needs to figure out her feelings. Crystal gave in her two cents on the situation even though her only experiences weren’t similar to what Jan was going through.

Jan thanked the girls for listening to her and everyone returned to being playful within minutes. Gigi tried her best to convince Jan to make a move on Jackie, which the other cheerleader refused.

gigi: if u talk to her u guys can get married <3

crystal: gigi you’re so stupid i love it

jan!: omg did someone say stupid love??? stream! 

gigi: crystal pls back me up :(

crystal: i might’ve found out who jackie is only 10 minutes ago but i will cry if jan doesn’t talk to her right now

jan!: better start crying bc i dont think i can even look at her now

jaida: crystal, that’s not saying much at all. you cried the other day bc gigi sent a pic of her dog

crystal: I AM A NANCY STAN FIRST AND A HUMAN SECOND!!

Crystal knew she looked like an idiot, walking to her locker with her eyes glued to her phone and a dopey smile on her face but she couldn't care less.

The day actually went well for Crystal. The highlight of her day was finding out that the story she wrote for her creative writing class had gotten the highest grade out of everyone in the class, earning her a piece of candy. 

crystal: just got candy and a 99% on my story for class… i truly have the mind of a mastermind

jaida: beauty and intelligence in one combined!

Navigating through the halls was much more difficult when your eyes are glued to your phone but replying to a meme Jaida sent seemed much more appealing to Crystal than getting to her seventh period class without worrying about bumping into someone.  And bumping into someone, she did.

“What the actual fuck, weirdo?” Dahlia yelped, looking extremely offended, “Get off of your sad, cracked phone and watch where your dumbass is going.”

Crystal just stared at her, frozen in fear. Sure, Dahlia taunted her daily, but this was very different from how she usually acts towards her. It was quite terrifying. 

“I swear to God, if you ever look at me, let alone fucking touch me again–” She continued her rant, but before she could finish her statement, she was interrupted by another beautiful cheerleader who Crystal was pretty sure was called Georgina, running over.

Crystal tensed up in fear. She knew of the ginger cheerleader, but she did not know enough about her to know if she would join in or ask Dahlia to back off.

“Can you please leave her alone? We don’t have time for this.” Georgina groaned, looking back at Crystal, flashing her a quick apologetic smile before turning around to escort Dahlia elsewhere. “I’m so sorry about Dahlia.” 

Even though she wasn’t too sure about the apology or how sincere it was, the Latina smiled back at Georgina anyway, watching as they got further and further away from where Crystal was standing.

“But she bumped into me!” Dahlia whined loudly, not used to being interrupted like this.

“Really? Wow, funny. I don’t care. This is exactly why Symone didn’t invite you to her birthday party.”

Once they were out of sight, Crystal was alone again. She pulled out her phone and went to check if anyone had said anything else in the chat. Just Jan freaking out, saying that Jackie smiled at her in the hallway.

jan!: what if she KNOWS

jaida: she’s gonna know if you don’t interact with her like a normal person

heidi: everyone say i if you think jan should stop being a baby and ask jackie out

jaida: i

crystal: i

heidi: i

jan!: WTF

jan!: friendship ended with heidi, jaida and crystal. gigi is my best friend

heidi: gigi wasn’t your best friend prior? that’s news to me

jaida: she would say i too if she was online and you know that

jan!: ugh!!! i don’t need friends. they disappoint me!

Crystal spent the majority of her last class of the day on Twitter but decided to not use her phone while she was walking home, not wanting to have a repeat of the Dahlia situation.

Her after school routine changed a lot since she had befriended the girls, making a rule to not check Twitter before completing her homework. Her Twitter addiction was getting worse now that she had people to talk to regularly, but she saw no issues with it since it was also causing her to be more productive with doing her homework. 

Once she had finished, she picked up her phone to see that she had a new message from Gigi which had been sent less than a minute prior.

gigi: hey clown :) im done w practice

crystal: WHY AM I A CLOWNDFSHDM

gigi: u just have clown energy. i cant and wont explain 

crystal: honestly yeah i see it but can i at least be your clown wife or something

Flirting wasn’t a thing Crystal did often. She wasn’t good at it in the slightest, but she couldn’t help but test the waters. 

gigi: yeah <3 hey clown wife! i listened to most of midnight memories and it was really good! my fave song is u and i and i like it a lot better than i wish.

The way Gigi always wrote the word ‘you’ aside, if that’s not love, then what is? If that’s not friendship, then what is? Crystal had never been able to get anyone to listen to anything she recommended, ever. She was filled with glee, double tapping the message to heart it. It meant a lot to her.

crystal: YAYAYAYAYA im so glad you found something better than i wish but it looks so ugly when you spell it like that 

gigi: fine. my fave song you and i* >:(

crystal: better >:) 

gigi: if i have to stop spelling it as u to make you not divorce me i will

Crystal knew deep down it was just a joke, but it made her heart race. The feeling she got when Gigi called the brunette her clown wife and this felt very unfamiliar, but very nice.

It didn’t help that Crystal thought ‘You and I’ was one of the most romantic songs One Direction had, she couldn’t help but make the fact Gigi liked it out of all of the other songs into something it was not.

This reminded her of her late-night thoughts. She had completely forgotten to ask Gigi where she lived, but the idea didn’t seem the greatest now that she was fully awake. She was still curious though, so against her better judgment she asked, without a segue or anything.

crystal: i forgot to ask but what state do you live in? asking for science

gigi: oh! i live in fucking missouri of all places

Crystal’s jaw dropped. She knew they were in the same time zone, but expected Gigi to live in a cooler state, such as Illinois; Not Missouri.

crystal: omg me too!!

She attempted to mask her excitement, but Gigi’s response got Crystal even more riled up.

gigi: i don't wanna reveal my town or anything but this is amazing.. maybe we won't have to break the distance at all <3 maybe if harry comes to kansas city we could go together?

Pleased that she somehow got an answer and trying her best not to freak out over the idea of seeing Harry with her, Crystal changed the conversation into a discussion of ‘Midnight Memories’ — specifically if Gigi agreed with the opinions the Latina had shared the night before. She did, for the most part and before they knew it, it was time for Gigi to go to sleep. Had they really talked all evening? 

gigi: i have to get up early so i need to go to sleep but im really glad jan added u to the gc

crystal: and im happy you asked me about one direction!

gigi: me too. ur cute when ur passionate. i hope we can continue to grow closer

crystal: i’d like that.

gigi: goodnight, my clown :)

crystal: goodnight, georgia rose

gigi: U DID NOT

gigi: my full name isn't even georgia and dad isn't even a dentist but i’ll allow it bc i know u think u invented comedy

gigi: ok gn now <33 luv u

crystal: gn!!! sleep well

Not that it had been going on for long, but Crystal wanted them to stay like this forever.

It was late and Crystal knew she should probably follow suit, but because she had been so busy talking to Gigi, she didn’t come down for dinner even though her mom called her down twice.

She was pretty certain that she was the only one in the house who was awake, but she was proven wrong as she discovered Daya standing in front of the fridge in the dark, eating shredded cheese straight out of the bag.

The Latina turned on the light, making her older sister nearly drop the bag she was holding. “Shit! Crystal, you scared me.” 

“Sorry. I just wanted to get something to eat before I went to bed.” Crystal explained, grabbing the first thing she could get her hands on which was a Ziploc bag of leftover pizza from a few nights prior. 

“Too busy talking to your girlfriend to eat dinner?” Daya asked, and now it was Crystal’s turn to almost drop the bag of pizza she was holding.

“Uh… what are you talking about? I don’t have a girlfriend. She’s not my girlfriend!” Crystal could feel her cheeks heating up, and she was starting to regret turning on the kitchen light. It didn’t help that she was not a good liar.

Daya’s face lit up. “I was just joking! I didn’t think you had actually met someone. Who is she? Is she cute?”

Crystal, not wanting to deal with this, rushed back up to her room. She had wanted to heat up the leftover pizza in the microwave, but she was not going to stand there and wait for it when Daya was trying to pry information out of her. 

Eating her cold pizza in peace, Crystal had figured that Daya had dropped it and had gone to bed. She was wrong, as she finished the last bite, the older girl let herself into Crystal’s room, taking a seat on the bed.

“You didn’t answer me. You were happier than usual, then mopey for a couple of days and now you’re back to being way too cheerful. It’s very obvious what’s going on. Who is she?”

Crystal felt her cheeks burning up yet again. “Um… she’s a girl.”

 “Well, duh! I wanna hear about her.”

The brunette covered her face with her hands. “You’re gonna laugh at me if I tell you.”

“I promise that I won’t. It’s late, start talking before I get it out of you.” Daya casually said, Crystal immediately picking up on the underlying threat. 

“Don’t you fucking dare! I’ll kick you in the face if you try to tickle me!” She threatened back, scooting away from Daya. 

“Who said I was gonna do that?” She asked innocently, but the way she scooted along with Crystal made it obvious that tickling was exactly what she had in mind.

Crystal tried to retreat to safety, but her bed was up against two walls and she was trapped. “Daya! Don’t!” 

The older girl went ahead and started to, and she didn’t have to tickle Crystal for long until she started to plead for mercy. “Fine! I’ll tell you!” 

Daya backed off from Crystal. “I’m waiting.”

Crystal came clean, Daya listening closely. She told her sister everything, from the fact that she likes the girl even though she has no idea what Gigi looks like, to the miscommunication involving Nicky, and to the fact that she’s been getting closer to the girl. 

“That’s… quite a situation there. Maybe this will be what makes you finally get your license!” Daya joked and Crystal reached out to pinch her bicep.

“I feel like such a useless lesbian, Daya. I finally made friends and I made it awkward by liking one of them.” Crystal whined, hugging her knees to her chest. 

“That’s just… not true. It’s not awkward. She definitely likes you. Just go with the flow as long as you’re comfortable with it, you might be surprised.” 

“Thanks. Now go away, I want to go to sleep.”

Daya snorted at that, but got up and retreated back in her room, leaving Crystal with much to think about.

Chapter Text

Gigi had never enjoyed being on Twitter more than she did now that Crystal was in her life. 

Sure, she said the exact same thing when she had downloaded the app to feel less alone and befriended Jan almost two years ago, and then when the two had befriended Jaida, Nicky and Heidi, but this felt so much different. Gigi loved the other four girls to death, but she had made a strong connection with Crystal, despite knowing her for the least amount of time.  

Whether it was messaging Crystal about nothing, or replying to her tweets with nonsense, Gigi spent almost every minute she was online interacting with her. She could not deny it anymore, she was definitely whipped for this girl she had met on the internet and the other girls were definitely starting to catch on.

jaida • @essenceofbey

if gigi doesn’t stop flirting and actually ask crystal out in the next two minutes i’m going to block her

nicky • @ilovesheep69

well… au revoir, gigi! it was so nice knowing her 

gigi • @campbellbitch

i have no idea what u guys are talking about! crystal and i are platonic soulmates! 

nicky • @ilovesheep69 

whatever helps you sleep at night!

jaida ReTweeted a Tweet you were mentioned in:  

whatever helps you sleep at night!

Despite the fact she made her crush on her new friend incredibly obvious, Gigi refused to actually acknowledge it.

Jan and Nicky were the most determined to try to get their close friend to crack, but the most she would say was that Crystal was just really nice and funny before changing the subject immediately. Gigi didn’t think she had it in her to tell any of her friends, let alone Crystal how she felt. She desperately wanted to, but she just couldn’t bring herself to do it. 

Gigi’s feelings were very new to her. She had always liked girls, but none of her past crushes affected her like this because she always had other things to worry about. Trying to start her transition before male puberty caught up with her was way more important than trying to take a girl she thought was cute to the school dance.

With hormones, a name change, a new wardrobe, and her family (luckily) relocating the summer she would be going into high school, she felt much better in her own skin. She was finally starting to become the woman she knew she was since she was much younger.

Things were complicated, though. Even though she was presenting feminine, she still felt like she was hiding a part of herself. No one besides her parents, her brothers and her Twitter friends (not including Crystal) knew she was trans, not since she had moved from Illinois to Missouri. She loved the friends she had made on the cheer team, but she didn’t know if she could ever tell them the truth. Would her coach kick her off the squad? Would Gigi’s offline friends feel betrayed that she didn’t tell them, even though it’s none of their business, and all end up abandoning her?

She didn’t know, and hopefully she would never have to find out. All of the pictures of her before age eleven, when she came out, were hidden away in boxes stored in the attic. As long as she had control over the situation, no one would ever open them again. As long as she didn’t accidentally out herself, no one who wasn’t aware would ever find out. 

She knew that her problems with vulnerability stemmed from coming out at a young age. While she was overjoyed that she could finally become who she had wanted to be, she was faced with a ton of backlash from her peers and their nosey parents. It caused her to become extremely closed off, and while it irritated her sometimes, it was better than being as vulnerable as eleven-year-old Gigi had been.

She especially hated her issues with vulnerability now. Having a girlfriend was a thing that Gigi wanted to experience now that she had recently turned sixteen, but it was hard to put herself out there. There were several girls at her school who she thought were cute, but it didn’t feel worth it to do anything. It made more sense to wait until she went to college in a more accepting area.

Crystal, however, made this promise extremely hard to keep. As unfamiliar the feelings Gigi had whenever she talked to and flirted with her new friend were, she liked them. A lot. She wanted to keep feeling them.

The problem was that it also made Gigi feel vulnerable, which she was still not used to feeling in the slightest. She loved to pretend that she did not have feelings, and if she could, she would keep up that facade for the rest of her life.  

On top of all of this, Gigi felt guilty about keeping this from Jan. The other cheerleader had a handful of flings and even a boyfriend since they had become friends, and she told Gigi every single detail about the various boys and the experiences with them, and even cried to her for days when said boyfriend broke up with her. 

Gigi wanted to give that energy back. 

She weighed the pros and cons of telling Jan. The only con was that Jan would know that she was capable of feeling emotions, which she wasn’t fond of, but she was able to convince herself that it wasn’t that big of a deal.

gigi: hey jan guess what

jan!: hm?

gigi: what if i told u that uhhh 

gigi: ihaveacrushoncrystal

jan!: i would say i’m not surprised. you hated one direction before you met her and you made her tell you everything about them.

gigi: no u are surprised this is brand new information

jan!: so glad you admitted it finally tho <3

jan!: are you gonna ask her out??

gigi: i dont know

gigi: she lives in missouri too so we might not have to do long distance but idk where bc i panicked at the thought of her being close to me and shut it down bc i am #Dumb

jan!: omg could you imagine if yall were irls

gigi: i would know if she lived in my town... there’s no way i could miss her chaotic energy

gigi: but i did say if harry came to missouri i would go with her. i am putting in the work

jan!: okay but you need to tell her. do not wait for a harry concert bb

jan!: i know you hate talking about feelings bc you think you're a robot but if you can tell me, you have it in you to tell her too. i believe in you and i know the other girls do too.

gigi: i will!!

jan!: when

gigi: idk!

jan!: gigi.

gigi: i will tell crystal when you tell jackie :)

jan!: oh fuck off 

gigi: it’s just. Aaaaaa

Jan was right, and Gigi knew it. It was painfully obvious to her and everyone else in their group that Crystal felt similarly, but none of them had made an actual move.

The other cheerleader pressed and pressed, but as the days went by, Gigi didn’t confess to Crystal. There were several paragraphs sitting in her notes app that she intended to send to her crush, but none of them made it to their direct messages. 

crystal: gheaguege 

gigi: oh my god why did you spell it like that

crystal: just bc

crystal: anyway i just realized i haven’t made you listen to any of the solo stuff

gigi: i’m sorry but i don’t want to listen to watermelon sugar 

crystal: ok. rude. it’s an amazing song and wouldn’t get as much hate if it wasn’t a single.

Gigi only asked Crystal about One Direction originally as an excuse to talk to her outside of the group chat. She didn’t expect Crystal’s love for the band to be so contagious, though. Growing fond of a British boy band wasn’t a thing she expected to happen, but everything she saw involving them made her smile because she associated them with Crystal.

It got to the point where Gigi even made a playlist of Crystal’s favorite songs that she would listen to frequently. She liked a few songs slightly better than Girl Almighty and No Control, but she listened to those the most only because Crystal liked them so much.

Listening to things that Crystal enjoyed made her happy. She had no interest in listening to any of these albums just a month ago, but now she was genuinely excited to listen and see Crystal react as Gigi listened to each song for the first time. 

Crystal insisted that Gigi listen to her favorite Harry Styles album, Fine Line. The album was good, and by the time she had reached the end of the final track, she had added two more songs to her secret “Songs That Crystal Likes” playlist.

jan!: i saw your gay tweet. did you tell her yet?

gigi: me tweeting the spotify link to her favorite harry song isn’t gay

jan!: …..

jan!: you are so….

gigi: i want to tell her. i promise i do. it’s just really hard. 

Why was it so hard for either of them to make the first move? 

gigi • @campbellbitch

this is impossible

crystal • @mitamcrystal

what is? ily :(

gigi • @campbellbitch

i dont wanna talk about it

crystal • @mitamcrytsal 

well as your clown wife i’m always here for you :)

The group chat also made it clear that they were there for Gigi if she needed it. They always offered support whenever something rough was going on, and because of her vulnerability issues, she never accepted. She did appreciate it though.

gigi: i love u guys very much <3 i’ll be okay.

Every girl in the group chat hearted her message, and Gigi watched as the chat soon resumed back to their usual chaos. Something about a meme that Heidi sent of an old man with text saying ‘Kid named Finger’ on it. She didn’t understand what it meant and neither did anyone else, but they laughed about it anyway.

Chapter Text

Gigi was acting strange.

Crystal had noticed the shift in the cheerleader’s energy the day that Gigi put out an ominous tweet about something being impossible. The girl who was usually confident and witty almost always seemed nervous and somewhat irritated about  something and would always deny it and change the subject if Crystal mentioned it. The Latina wanted to help Gigi through whatever was upsetting her, but she felt like she was speaking to a brick wall instead of her friend.

Because of the lack of answers, Crystal couldn’t help but be upset about it; she was extremely emotional and took almost everything to heart! Her brain had instantly jumped to the conclusion that Gigi figured out she liked her and was uncomfortable with it. Deep down, Crystal knew this didn’t make sense, as Gigi would still flirt with her occasionally. She would’ve stopped if Crystal liking her made her uncomfortable, right?

Crystal finally decided to reach out to the people Gigi was the closest to: Jan and Nicky. They both said the same thing: that Gigi wouldn’t tell them what caused the sudden change. Part of Crystal felt like she was being lied to, but hopefully, if there was a problem, someone would’ve said something by now.

Still feeling down from the way Gigi had been acting, she figured that bothering Daya could make her feel better. The older girl had more ex-girlfriends than Crystal could count on one hand, surely, she would have a better outlook on what was really going on.

Not bothering to knock, the brunette barged into Daya’s room and flopped down on her sister’s bed. 

“Hey?” Daya asked, getting a muffled, long groan in response.

“Why is love so complicated?” Crystal asked once she was done face planting on her sister’s bed, making Daya laugh. “She’s still talking to me but she’s acting weird. But she won’t tell anyone why. I don’t think it’s about me but… I don’t know.”

“Crystal, you need to remember that you don’t know what goes on in her life when she exits Twitter. I’m sure it’s not because of you. Just give her time to heal from whatever happened, and I’m sure you’ll be back to whatever it is you two get up to.”

“Okay…” The brunette agreed, reaching out to pet TicTac who was taking a nap on Daya’s bed.

“Also, you know I love and support you… but what the actual fuck is this situation?” Daya questioned, “Like, I’ve started liking girls for questionable reasons but this has never happened to me.”

“Gigi’s just… really nice to me. She’s really funny and talking to her makes me really happy. Yeah, I don’t know what she looks like and I do want to see what she looks like eventually but that’s not a thing I’m too worried about. I’m sure she’s beautiful but that’s not everything. What matters is that we have such a strong bond already, you know? I’ve never had anything like this before.” 

“That’s actually really sweet. I’m just saying that because I know you need guidance but like, it’s not a thing I’ve ever seen happen. I can’t even find her account because you blocked me on Twitter.”

“What? You found my account?” Crystal asked, growing mortified. She had blocked Daya when she started using Twitter regularly, just in case she ever went viral. “Oh my God!”

“Maybe I’ll look at it on Bosco’s phone,” Daya teased, flustering Crystal even more. The brunette knew her sister wouldn’t find anything necessarily bad on the account, but her tweets were full of slightly embarrassing things; especially now that she had been tweeting about Gigi on a regular basis.

“No! I’m going to block every girl you’ve ever been involved with!” Flustered and scrambling for her phone, she figured that was enough of being vulnerable with her sister and went back into her room. Daya was more experienced with these things that Crystal struggled with and was a big help to her, but first and foremost, Daya was her older sister and would always choose to terrorize the brunette when appropriate.

crystal: my sister knows i blocked her on twitter omfg i am so embarrassed

heidi: when rock found my twitter i thought she was going to break up with me but she found my tweets funny

jan!: my friend lemon from the cheer team found out i like jackie bc i didn’t turn off the thing where you can find accounts from the phone number connected to your account and i showed up 

crystal: you guys are NOT HELPING!!!!

crystal: i have to block every single girl my sister has ever dated bc she said she was gonna look at my acc on another girl’s phone and i’m paranoid. there’s like 3 of them just from the last year and a half

nicky: your sister has bitches??? omg she’s just like me

jaida: ?

heidi: nicky wishes she was me so bad

nicky: how do we even know that rock is real? rock is not a real name.

heidi: i sent a pic of me and her like three days ago i hate you 

heidi: but let me make sure i’m following this… jan can give gigi her nickname but i can’t call my gf rock? :/

nicky: can you name a famous model named rock?

heidi: yeah i’m dating her dummy

jan!: nicky stop being a loser and go to watch bob léponge or something

jaida: perfect show for a child like herself

crystal: HDJDJDJDDK

nicky: WTF :(

Crystal took Daya’s advice. Whatever her crush was dealing with most likely didn’t involve her, before she knew it, the old Gigi came back one day. It hadn’t been a significant amount of time since she had started acting strange but to Crystal, it felt much longer. 

crystal • @mitamcrystal

i kinda wanna dye my hair again… thoughts?

gigi • @campbellbitch

omg yes!! dm me now!!!

She was glad that Gigi was on board with the idea, because the brunette was already waiting for Daya to finish up her makeup so that she could drive them to Sally’s Beauty Supply to get hair dye.  

gigi: crystal crystal cryssieeeeee

gigi: what color do u want to dye ur hair???

gigi: i think green would look nice!

crystal: i was thinking pink to match my sister but i think i’m on team green now

gigi: hehe good <3

Crystal grinned. She wasn’t sure why this in particular made Gigi go back to normal, she found it extremely odd but she was not going to complain. She had missed this.

“Stop being gay, I’m ready to go,” Daya chuckled when she walked into the living room and saw Crystal laying on the couch, smiling wide.

“I wasn’t even messaging Gigi!” Crystal lied, getting up and following Daya out to her car.

“You’ve never been a good liar.”

“Oh, shut up!”

Crystal was glued to her phone the entire drive there. Daya was talking about something, the younger girl wasn’t sure what it was exactly but she would nod and pretend that she was engaged while she was replying to the messages Gigi was sending her.

Once they had gotten into the store, Crystal was immediately drawn to the most obnoxious green that would definitely fade after a single wash. She would have to make another trip back to the beauty supply store before the month was over, but she had made up her mind. She was dying her hair that color.

Daya wanted pink but hadn’t made her final decision on the shade she wanted. “Wait! We would look like Cosmo and Wanda!” The taller girl excitedly shouted, getting a glare from an older woman who was also in the hair dye aisle. “If you don’t get the reference I’m making you walk home.”

“I get the reference, stupid.” 

The older girl finally chose hot pink and the two paid for everything they needed and went back to the house. Crystal finally put her phone down and stopped updating Gigi on everything that was going on when it was time to actually dye her hair, saying she didn’t want her phone to be green. 

She did spend even more time gushing about Gigi to Daya, who had given up on trying to understand exactly why her sister has such strong feelings for someone like the cheerleader.

Crystal picked up her phone the second her hands were clean and her hair was washed out and went to reply to the girl she had been messaging all night.

crystal: it’s done!!!! :D

gigi: ooooh lemme see!!!!

gigi: only if u want to show me of course.. i dont want u to be uncomfortable but i’m curious to see how beautiful you are.

Crystal couldn’t help but feel her cheeks heat up when she saw that message. Gigi wanted to see what she looked like? Gigi was under the assumption that she was beautiful?

crystal: hold on… i need to find a filter that actually makes me look pretty 

gigi: :(( i bet u look pretty no matter what

crystal: ehhhh 

gigi: im right!!! ur pic is in the dictionary under the word beautiful

crystal: you haven’t even seen me??? what are you, gay?

gigi: u are a giant (pretty) loser

Crystal had always been hesitant to post pictures of herself online. Her Instagram account only existed so she could see what the One Direction boys were posting. There was a trend that happened every month where fans would post a selfie along with a picture of their favorite celebrity, and she felt like she was the only one who had never participated before.  

Looks didn’t matter to Crystal, but would they matter to Gigi? Gigi, who ran an account dedicated to models? Would their little situationship end if the other girl didn’t find her attractive enough?

Fears aside, she went onto Instagram to scroll through the various filters she had saved because she thought they looked cute on the celebrities she followed. She settled on one that put little blue dinosaurs on her cheeks and spent an embarrassingly long time trying to find the correct lighting and finding the best pose before taking one she deemed as good enough to send to Gigi.

crystal: what if… you sent me a selfie back… aha… unless? (i’m scared and need support)

gigi: i think i could arrange that… it’s only fair! :-)

crystal: OMG YAY!!!

crystal: ok here it is! hi!

The Latina stared at her screen as the picture went through, waiting for Gigi to reply. Her crush immediately hearted the selfie and Crystal unknowingly held her breath until Gigi finally finished typing her reply. 

gigi: CRYSTAL!!!! ur so stunning holy fuck <33 marry me

gigi: but i dont think ur gonna think the same about me

Before she could really question what Gigi meant by that, the other girl had sent a selfie back. Crystal confirmed what she had thought, her crush was one of the prettiest girls she had ever seen; she looked like she could become one of the models she posted about all the time. Beauty aside, unbearable anxiety took over Crystal’s body as she hastily typed out a reply.

crystal: uh

crystal: what the fuck??? you’re georgina??

Chapter Text

As soon as Crystal sent those messages, she exited the Twitter app. The girl she had been talking to for months, the girl she had shared so many personal things with was Georgina Goode , who appeared to be close friends with the girl who hated Crystal for no reason, because of course this would happen to her.  

Her mind was racing, her brain instantly jumping to the worse case scenarios. 

Did Gigi know she was talking to Crystal this entire time? Was this entire thing just a ploy orchestrated by Dahlia to get dirt on her? Georgina presented herself as a typical straight cheerleader, which was the complete opposite of who Crystal knew Gigi to be. Did Gigi even like her, or was Crystal just a silly little experiment that no one would ever find out about because it was over the internet? She knew none of these theories made sense, she didn’t think Gigi had any idea who she was until now.

Anxiety was a bitch, though. Gigi was spamming her, trying to explain herself but Crystal couldn’t even bring herself to look at her phone long enough to read what she was being sent. 

She couldn’t breathe and she felt tears running down her cheeks. Taking deep breaths to try to calm herself down was unsuccessful because she would just go back to hyperventilating every time she thought it was okay to stop intentionally taking the deep breaths. 

Even though Daya was still confused at the situation, Crystal knew that she needed to talk to someone. Picking up TicTac on the way down the hall for emotional support, she let herself into Daya’s room.

“Bad time, I’m on the phone with—” Daya started, most likely on the phone with her girlfriend, “Oh my God, Crystal, what happened? I gotta go, baby. I’ll call you later.”

 Now that she had Daya’s full attention, she tried to talk but she was not understandable in the slightest. Her older sister held her as she sobbed, telling Crystal that whatever happened, it would be okay.

After several minutes, Crystal finally managed to calm down enough to be able to speak clearly. “Gigi sent me a picture of herself, and she goes to my school.”

“That’s great! I don’t see what the problem is here,” Daya said, perplexed. 

“First, she’s the typical straight cheerleader. And also she’s friends with the girl bullying me. So that’s very fun for me.” 

“I didn’t think you were actually being bullied!” Daya gasped, “Why the fuck didn’t you say something?”

“Do you know how embarrassing it would be if my adult sister came to my school and threatened the girl bullying me?”

“Fair enough. But Gigi wasn’t involved in any of it, was she?”

“I don’t have any classes with Gigi and almost all of it happens in class. I did run directly into Dahlia a few weeks ago though and Gigi saw it and pulled her away and said she was sorry about everything.”

“Well, do you think she knows this is a recurring thing since she’s not in that class?” Daya had to deal with Crystal’s anxiety often and knew how to make her start to think clearly.

“Probably not. I’m sure she put the pieces together though since I told her about a cheerleader being mean to me when we first started talking. It just scares me knowing that they’re friends.”  

“Okay, moving on. What’s the problem with her not being out at school? I don’t think you’re out either.”

“I don’t have friends to come out to! And I don’t know, what if this was just an experiment she did to see if she actually liked girls? No one would ever find out about it since it happened over Twitter,” Crystal tried to explain her reasoning, but Daya just let out a heavy sigh.

“I’ve known several girls who wanted to use me as their experiment. Those girls usually want you to hook up with them, not ask you about One Direction for the sole intention of talking to you.”

Crystal blushed at that, starting to feel silly for worrying about everything to the point where she had an anxiety attack. “Oh…”

“You’re also forgetting how people are more open and more like themselves online. You just know how the real Gigi is and acts. She’s obviously closested and only out online and why she is, that’s none of your business.”

“I feel stupid now,” Crystal sheepishly admitted, “She’s been spamming my phone, probably trying to explain everything and I haven’t even looked at it.”

 “I get it. Things are scary. It’s up to you to decide what your next move is, but you’re okay no matter what happens,” Daya reassured her little sister, patting her on the back. 

Picking up her phone once she went back into her room, it was clear by the unread messages that Gigi was also panicking.

gigi: wait

gigi: shit

gigi: i’m sorry

gigi: let me explain

gigi: crystal i’m so sorry i just put the pieces together and realized that dahlia is the bitch cheerleader u have been talking about and i feel so bad. she’s unfriendly in general so i didn’t think much of it when i saw u two in the hallway. 

gigi: i don’t want you to think i’m a bully or anything i will get her to back off i promise

gigi: are u okay??

gigi: it’s okay if ur upset but please let me know ur okay

crystal: i just

crystal: i’m not mad but i think i want to have this conversation in person

gigi: we can do that. where and when??

crystal: i live in the neighborhood behind the school. i’ll tell you which house and you can come over after school. my mom and sister don’t get off of work until around 6

gigi: i will

gigi: i’m sorry again

Crystal didn’t reply to that. They had a lot to talk about: Dahlia, how the news would change their budding relationship, if they even wanted to take things to the next level now that they knew they wouldn’t have to do long distance. She didn’t feel comfortable having such a major conversation online if she could do it in person.

Crystal didn’t open Twitter again until her lunch period, for the purpose of sending Gigi the directions to her house. She had been too stressed out to bother checking in on her friends and saw that she had missed a lot on Twitter. When she opened up the group chat for the first time that day, she had almost one thousand new messages from the group of girls even though she was gone for less than a day.

crystal: im having flavor blasted goldfish and fruit snacks for lunch what’s up ladies

jan!: hi crystal!!!

jaida: where have you been?? my world has been so empty

nicky: wtf jaida stop acting like i don’t exist

crystal: ehh personal things happened so i was ia. i dyed my hair green last night tho!! look!!

jan!: omg you're so pretty

jaida: HOT HOT HOT

nicky: crystal. marriage now

heidi: omg girl you look so good!! i love your leprosy print shirt

heidi: leprosy

heidi: wtf how do you spell lepord

heidi: leopard

heidi: there we go

nicky: you did it!

jaida: so proud of you

She was relieved they didn’t question her further, but she couldn’t help but be curious about what their reactions would be if they knew what was going on. Not that anything had progressed yet, but how would they react to finding out that they had lived in the same town this entire time?

She spent almost all of the hour she got for lunch on Twitter, and after that the rest of the day was painfully long. Every minute felt like an hour, Crystal was bored out of her mind even during her art class. Her legs were bouncing with anticipation; she couldn’t wait to go home and talk to Gigi.

Crystal made the decision to skip her seventh period class. All of the emotions she was having was making it too difficult for her to focus in a learning environment. She zoned out while she was walking home, wondering what could happen tonight. If things went well, she could kiss Gigi and ask her to become official. Anything could happen, and Crystal couldn’t really tell how she felt about it. She was giddy just thinking about having the opportunity to talk to Gigi in person, but she was also incredibly nervous.

When Crystal got home, she paced around the house before deciding it would be in her best interest to tidy up her room. Her bed was unmade, her dirty clothes from the night before were on the floor, and a couple dirty cups littered the top of her nightstand. It wasn’t too bad, she would usually consider this clean for her, but it made her feel slightly embarrassed now. She had the urge to fix it, even though Gigi probably wouldn’t have cared too much if Crystal left it the way it was.

Cleaning up didn’t take nearly as long as she thought it would take and she decided to check in on the group chat again while she waited for Gigi.

nicky: ADD HER

nicky: ADDD HEEERRRRR

jaida: jan please come back i hate it here

crystal: who are we adding?

nicky: JACKIE

jan!: NO WE WILL NOT BE ADDING HER

nicky: why :(

jan!: i can’t trust you guys to not embarrass me in front of her

jaida: we don’t have to embarrass you, you’ll do it yourself

nicky: JAIDAHJKFDGLK

crystal: omg add her

jan!: i hate you all so much

nicky: PLS

jan!: fine.

jan!: remember that i’m the admin and i can remove her ANY TIME I WANT

jan! added Jackie

jan!: jackie, these are my friends. don’t believe anything they say about me.

Jackie: Oh, hello everyone!

nicky: YAAAS JACKIE NATION

nicky: c’mon auto caps!

crystal: hi!  

jaida: hi jackie!

heidi: i leave to play animal crossing for 15 minutes and we get a new member… smh

nicky: not just any new member! it’s jackie!!!!

jaida: the way nicky likes jackie more than jan does

heidi: that’s impossible. jan is SUCH a whore for jackie

jan!: ….

Jackie: I would assume that Jan likes me, especially after what we did in my car earlier.

crystal: holy fucking shit

jan!: OMFGHFJSKDSFHJDFJK UH

jan!: JACKIE SHUT UP!!!!!!

Jackie: Why? These are your friends, aren’t they?

nicky: janet omfg

jaida: god i love it here

jan!: GET YOUR MINDS OUT OF THE GUTTER!!!!!!!

What Crystal wasn’t expecting during the chaos was getting a message from Gigi right as school got out saying she was on her way when she knew for a fact that the ginger had cheer practice on Monday’s. Her anxious pacing started up again knowing that she had maybe five minutes before the cheerleader would be on her doorstep.

gigi: on my way

crystal: you have cheer though?

gigi: i think talking to u about everything is more important than preparing a routine juuust good enough to distract from the fact that we have the worst football team imaginable

gigi: i’m also mad at dahlia and it’ll piss her off!

crystal: okay fair

Crystal made her way out to the living room to wait, opening her front door the second she saw Gigi step onto the porch. The cheerleader jumped, not expecting it. “Someone’s eager to see me, huh?”

Crystal blushed, hesitantly letting Gigi in. “Shut up.”

Gigi kicked off her shoes and sat her backpack down next to them before letting Crystal lead her to her room. It was colorful, with lots of posters and canvases covering the hot pink walls. “This is very you. I like it!”

“Thank you!” Crystal exclaimed, taking a seat on her bed and patting the space next to her. Gigi eagerly sat next to her. 

The nervous energy between the two of them and the awkward silence was too much for Crystal to bear. She felt like it was her first time ever interacting with another girl before.

“This is just really weird. Twenty-four hours ago, I didn’t know who you were and now you’re in my bed. Not like that though!” Crystal blurted out. “It’s just overwhelming,” she tried to clarify, making Gigi frown. “But not in a bad way! It’s just a lot to process. I need to shut up. How was your day?”

Gigi let out a small giggle, amused at Crystal’s nervous rambling. “It was okay. Symone, Naomi and I snuck off campus to go get pizza for lunch. But uh, the secret's out.”

“Yeah…” Crystal agreed, not knowing what to say next.

Gigi continued talking, though. “I’m going to sound like such a bitch, but I didn’t even know your name until last night.”  

The Latina couldn’t help but laugh at that confession. “Wow, I really am a loser.”

“I’ve never been good with names! I was only able to remember the girl’s names because their names are attached to everything they say. Honestly, I’d forget my own name if it wasn’t on my necklace,” The redhead confessed, reaching up to re-adjust her silver necklace that said “Gigi” on it.

A wave of boldness washed over Crystal and before she knew it, she had reached out to hold Gigi’s hand. “It’s fine. I don’t think Dahlia knows what my name is either.”

“Speaking of her, I’m so sorry about everything. I didn’t know about it; I feel stupid for not realizing it wasn’t just an isolated situation.”

“I mean, you did stop it.”

“I need to come up with a way to make her leave you alone without letting her know that something’s going on. There’s a few reasons why I keep up the cisgender, heterosexual cheerleader act and Dahlia is a part of it.”  

“Is she homophobic?” Crystal asked, expecting Gigi to say yes.

“No, but… Actually, no. That’s not important right now. But I will do whatever I can to make her stop. At least she’s a senior this year so she’ll be gone before we know it.”

They sat in silence for a few moments and Gigi pulled her hand away. Both girls were well aware what was next to discuss, but both of them were too nervous to speak. The green-haired girl really should have asked her sister how to stop acting like such a baby gay.

“Can I tell you something?” Crystal asked quietly, avoiding Gigi’s glance. 

“Of course. You can tell me anything.”

“I really like you. I know it’s probably weird now, since you’re not out and I’m not quite positive you feel the same, but I feel like I should tell you now that we wouldn’t have to do long distance.”

Gigi smiled, placing her fingers under Crystal’s chin, lifting them up to make eye contact with her. “I’ve been hoping you would say that.”

Crystal blushed at the contact. “Really?”

“Of course! You’re single handedly the most interesting person I’ve ever met. I would be such a fool not to like you back.”

“You’re too sweet, Georgina.” The Latina really wanted to lean in and kiss Gigi for the first time, but before she could gain the courage to, the cheerleader opened her mouth again.

“It’s my turn to tell you something,” Gigi said, playing with her necklace again.

“Oh yeah?”

“Yeah. Last night, I was going to ask you to be my girlfriend, but that obviously did not happen.” The ginger’s face began to match the shade of her hair and she grabbed a throw pillow off of Crystal’s bed to hide her blushing face in. 

Crystal took the pillow away from her, sitting it next to them, “Do you still want me to be your girlfriend?”

Gigi nodded. “Yeah, but I don’t know if we should become official yet. We know each other so well, but I feel like we need to see if we vibe in person. I think we’ll be just fine but like, things are a little different now.”

“I agree. We can take it slow if that’s what you want. But can I try something first?” Crystal asked, the boldness coming back to her.

Gigi grinned, “Yeah, what?”

“This,” she whispered, leaning forward until her lips pressed against Gigi’s. Gigi kissed her back, wrapping her arms around her neck and pulling Crystal even closer.  

Chapter Text

Taking things slow was perfectly fine with Crystal because she was able to spend time with Gigi online and offline.

She had always thought that Georgina the closed-off cheerleader was gorgeous when they would pass each other in the halls but she never had a crush on her or bothered to say anything since the two girls seemed so different at the time; why would a cheerleader want anything to do with someone like Crystal? Now that she knew that Georgina was Gigi, Crystal only found the cheerleader to be more attractive.

Gigi tried to join Crystal for lunch in the art room whenever she could. They would sit around the empty classroom, feeding each other fruit snacks (Crystal started packing an extra pouch just for the ginger) while making jokes about their day so far and how lame their teachers tended to be. The Latina usually spent the entire lunch hour on Twitter, and now she had her favorite person she had met on that app in the same room as her. It was still so surreal for her.

The ginger also didn’t live too far away from Crystal, so she started bringing Gigi home with her after school on days she didn’t have cheerleading practice. Crystal’s mom was caught off guard by the fact that her loner daughter had befriended a cheerleader but welcomed her with open arms anyways. 

Crystal did have to put in the effort to make sure that Daya never had the chance to speak to Gigi for more than thirty seconds. The green-haired girl was a mess by default because the prettiest girl in the world wanted to date her, and she didn’t need her older sister to embarrass her further. 

Unfortunately for Crystal, Gigi ended up eating dinner with her, Daya, and their mom one night. Both members of her family appeared to really like her new ‘friend’, and she was incredibly grateful for that. She was not too grateful for how Daya somehow managed to make everything they talked about into something embarrassing Crystal had done in the past. It was a miracle when she was able to leave the table and bring Gigi back to her bedroom.

Gigi had texted her mom saying that they were going to work on her homework, and she would be home before it was too late. They were both pretty bad at math, but Crystal insisted if they worked together, they would be able to figure it out, which was debatable at best. They barely got any questions done, they ended up cracking jokes and Gigi did not hesitate to tease the green-haired girl about the newfound knowledge she had gotten from Daya.

“Symone’s boyfriend has long hair. Maybe that’s who you saw at Starbucks instead of Harry?” Gigi asked, bringing up a story that Daya told her about how Crystal had mistaken a random man with long hair as Harry Styles back when she was eleven years old. 

“I’m gonna send you home if you don’t stop making fun of me!” Crystal yelped, growing embarrassed by her past self yet again. 

Gigi rolled her eyes but instinctively checked her phone. “Ugh, my mom wants me home before it’s pitch-black outside.”

“Lame, I’ll walk you to the driveway.”

“But I don’t want to go. I’m too comfy,” Gigi complained, making it clear she did not want to get up from the comfort of Crystal’s bed by nestling further into the pillows.

“You have to. Sorry,” Crystal replied, making Gigi stick her tongue out at her. She sat up and scooted closer to the Latina, though. 

“Hey, so before I go, I was thinking...”

“You think?” Crystal teased, giggling. Gigi gasped in mock offense, throwing a pillow at her head.

“Anyway, as I was saying,” Gigi continued, “We’re having lunch as usual tomorrow, but not in the art room.”

Crystal perked up at that. “Okay! Where?”

“That part is a surprise. Just stand outside the door of your fifth period classroom and I’ll meet you there.”

Those words replayed in Crystal’s brain as she walked Gigi outside and then for the rest of the night. She wished she could see inside of the silly little head of hers and figure out what exactly she was planning. She didn’t have to, though—a conversation that happened in the group chat when Crystal was in the shower gave her the answers and got her even more excited.

gigi: guys guess what

jan!: yeah??

gigi: i miss crystal :(

jan!: weren’t you at her house like an hour ago

heidi: hold up WHAT

jan!: fuck i forgot

nicky: gigi was WHERE????

jaida: nicky why are you awake loser

jaida: but huh??

gigi: JAN SHUSH you ruined my big reveal!!!

jaida: JAN YOU KNEW THIS??? and didn’t wish to share???

jan!: um….

heidi: not the reveal DHGJSDH

gigi: i’m gonna ask crystal to be my girlfriend and then after that i was gonna send a selfie of us revealing that not only we are dating but that we live in the same town and everyone would lose their minds at the news!!! it was gonna be epic :(

jaida: now why would you announce that if she’s in here

gigi: SHIT

jaida: gigi i really love how you just don’t have the ability to think critically

gigi: everyone spam the chat!! she doesn’t read up if there’s too many messages 

jan!: ok i’m stealing your idea. we aren’t dating yet but look at me and jackie :-) aren’t we so cute

gigi: u guys are very cute stop rubbing it in :( 

nicky: I HEARD JACKIE IM BACKIE

jaida: nicky why do you hit on everyone who’s not available dgfhfj first gigi, and then you were a crystal stan and now this

nicky: why are you acting like this is a problem jai

Jackie: I find it hilarious. Jan only reserves that side of her when Ariana Grande posts a selfie. I’m chopped liver to her.

jan!: WHY DO YOU ONLY COME IN HERE TO BULLY ME

Jackie: ;)

gigi: jackie’s using emojis we did it gays

nicky: i am a homewrecker. jaida, find a partner and i will flirt with you too

heidi: nicky literally no one asked

jaida: well damn.. 

jaida: hey heidi you single??

heidi: NOT THISIDHDGKJS

Crystal usually didn’t read up—these girls could send fifty messages a minute if they really put their mind to it, and she was usually too lazy to read up when she knew that they would continue sending messages anyways. It was too much for her sometimes. This time she decided to read up, and she was glad she did. They didn’t try hard enough to hide anything Gigi said, and Crystal was even more excited for the next day.

Crystal got up extra early that morning, putting more effort than she usually would into taming her curly hair and putting on a tad bit more makeup than usual. She searched her closet for the perfect outfit, and finally picked out a hot pink jumpsuit with purple flowers on it, with a headband with the same design on it to match. Her outfit definitely clashed with her newly dyed hair but she loved what she saw when she finally looked at herself in her full-length mirror. 

Crystal knew this was going to be a good day; she looked super cute, and Gigi was going to ask her to be her girlfriend during lunch! She was delighted.

“You are way too happy for someone who has to go to school today,” Daya commented, pouring herself a bowl of cereal that was marketed towards children as Crystal got ready to leave. 

“Of course I’m happy, a little birdie told me that Gigi is finally gonna ask me to be her girlfriend today!” She beamed.

“Even after everything I told her about you last night? Damn, she must really like you.” 

“Hey!” The younger girl yelped.

“But seriously, congrats. I told you everything was gonna be okay. I wanna know everything when I get home from work.”

Due to Crystal’s impatience, the morning felt much longer than it actually was. When the bell signaling that it was lunch finally rang, Crystal couldn’t hide the gigantic grin on her face even if she tried. 

Right outside the doorway stood Gigi, along with two other girls who were on the cheerleading squad. Crystal, under the impression that she was going on a date, found this incredibly odd but made her way over to the group anyway.

“Hey, you ready?” Gigi asked, giving Crystal a quick hug. “This is Symone, and this is Naomi,” the ginger continued, motioning to the other girls. “I want you to meet them so we're all having lunch together!”

Realization hit. There was no date, Crystal was way off. She really hoped her face didn’t show her disappointment. The green-haired girl tried to ignore it as she was curious to meet Symone and Naomi. Gigi had talked about the two quite a few times and they seemed much kinder than her bully. 

“Just with you guys? Not Dahlia?” Crystal asked, making the cheerleaders giggle.

“Nope!” Gigi confirmed.

“And we are so thankful for that,” Symone added. 

They snuck off campus to go get pizza, something that the group of cheerleaders seemed to do often considering how calm and collected they were while Crystal was nervously looking over her shoulder every few seconds to make sure the coast was clear. 

Once they had arrived, Crystal wasn’t sure what to say to Gigi’s friends. She was honestly afraid to say anything because she still wasn’t quite sure where Georgina ended and where Gigi began. She didn’t want to bring up anything her friends didn’t know and risk it being incredibly awkward.

“It’s so nice to finally meet you! Georgina talks about you all the time,” Symone said, taking a sip of her soda. 

“Yeah, it’s like she has a girl crush on you or something.”

Crystal tried not to scream at Naomi's comment; If only she knew what had been unfolding for the past couple of months. “I’m glad we started hanging out. It’s really cool being friends with a cheerleader.” 

“How did you two meet, anyway?” Symone asked, making Crystal start to internally panic. She didn’t want to have to bring up the fact that they had met on Twitter.

“She followed me on Instagram, and I thought she seemed cool so I messaged her,” Gigi replied nonchalantly, close enough to the truth. “And then that turned into us having lunch together.”

“Aw, I love that!” Naomi gushed, “Georgina is actually pretty shy so I’m glad she’s putting herself out there.”

Crystal couldn’t help but grin when she saw Gigi start to become flustered over that comment, “I am not shy. I’m just picky about who I decide to talk to.”

“No, you’re shy,” Symone chimed in.

Gigi rolled her eyes, feigning annoyance. “Whatever.” 

The rest of the lunch period was amazing; it was the first time that Crystal felt included in a group (that was in person) since she was in elementary school. She was also relieved that Symone and Naomi were as kind-hearted as Gigi was. The Latina didn’t want to return to school, she felt like she could spend the rest of the day chatting and devouring pizza with the three cheerleaders.

Crystal felt like her day was one of the best ones she had in months, but she felt disappointed when Daya came home from work and she had to say that she was still single.

“She said we were going to have lunch somewhere else today and I thought it was going to happen then but then she introduced me to her cheerleader friends, and we snuck out to get pizza. I feel so stupid!” Crystal whined, burying her head into her hands. 

“You’re not stupid; closested girls are tricky. Gigi is definitely… something. My best guess is she probably wanted to see if you got along with her friends first before making it official.”

“I just wish she would ask me already. I really like spending time with her even more now that it’s in person and I want to guarantee that it can keep happening.”

“Then don’t wait. Ask her to be your girlfriend,” Daya said, acting like it was the most obvious thing in the world. 

It was the most obvious thing in the world. “You’re right. I’ll ask her tomorrow. I’ll make sure TicTac is involved too so she’ll have to say yes.”

“I don’t think you need to worry about that. The way she was looking at you during dinner the other night was absolutely disgusting. Like God, how are you two not dating already?”

Chapter Text

Crystal was a coward.

She had been trying to gain the courage to ask Gigi the question she so desperately wanted to ask her, but she couldn’t bring herself to do it.

“What’s wrong, babe?” Gigi asked once they came into Crystal's room, both of them sitting on the bed. The Latina had been trying to hide her never-ending anxiety from the ginger but she was clearly doing a terrible job. 

“It's stupid, don't worry about it. I’ll be fine,” Crystal lied, busying herself by petting TicTac who had jumped up to join them.

“It's not stupid if it's bothering you,” Gigi pushed.

Crystal took a deep breath before letting it all out. “What are we, Gigi? We said we'd be just friends for now, but I thought you were going to take me on a date during lunch earlier this week since you told the group chat about your plan, but I was wrong! I just want you to be my girlfriend so fucking badly.” 

Gigi had to take a moment to process everything. “I was going to try to clear that up by taking you on a date during spring break,” she admitted, making Crystal’s eyes go wide.

“Fuck… I’m sorry, I just–” she mumbled, feeling awful for getting riled up.

“That's why I wanted you to meet my other friends,” Gigi continued, “I think I’m going to come out to them before spring break.”

Crystal was slightly shocked by this. “Gigi, spring break starts on Saturday. Are you sure about this?”

She shrugged. “Yeah. I need to. I talk to them about you all the time and I think they're starting to get suspicious,” Gigi added, blushing.

“I wanted to yell when Naomi hit the nail on the head, honestly.”

“Yeah, there’s that. And then there’s… the other thing. The thing I’ve been really scared to do again,” Gigi said, looking down and nervously playing with a strand of her hair.

“What other thing?” Crystal asked, perplexed. She reached out to hold Gigi’s hand as the ginger bit her lip and tried not to burst into tears.

“Coming out as a trans girl.” 

Crystal gave Gigi’s hand a supportive squeeze. “Thank you for telling me. I can’t imagine how hard it must be to do this.”

“I did it before and it was hell. I was only eleven when I told my parents, and I wasn’t ready to let anyone else know but I had to do something before I started hating my body even more. People noticed, friends left and…. fuck,” Gigi sighed, the green-haired girl let go of her hand and leaned forward to wipe the tears off of her cheek. 

“I’m so sorry. Those people are assholes and you didn’t deserve that.”

Gigi rested her head on Crystal’s shoulder, wrapping her arms around the Latina’s waist. “Only my family and the groupchat know. Them and you have been nothing but supportive of me but it’s just hard.”

“I’m sure it is.”

“And not that Dahlia or anyone else on the team has ever been homophobic or transphobic, I’m just scared that they’re… not going to be able to overlook me being trans the way they’ll be able to ignore me being a lesbian,” Gigi sighed, “I know I need to be open about everything but it’s just… a lot.”

“I’ll be by your side no matter what you choose to do. Not that I have power to keep you on the cheerleading squad, but I’ll do anything I can to help if it does come to that.”

“Thank you, Crystal. That was enough vulnerability for the day,” The redhead concluded, pulling back from the Latina. 

“I’m happy that you feel like you can trust me with stuff like this,” Crystal hummed, leaning forward to press a kiss to Gigi's cheek, making her whine.

“No. On the lips,” Gigi pouted, making the shorter girl laugh at how quickly the tone of the conversation changed.

“I don't kiss before the first date, Georgia Rose,” Crystal teases. 

“You're so stupid!” Gigi huffs, tackling Crystal onto her bed, tickling her sides until she thought the Latina had enough. When the taller girl finally stopped, Crystal laid there for a moment, still giggling even though Gigi’s manicured fingers weren’t on her anymore. 

“You’re so mean! I didn’t deserve that.” 

“You’re the one who wouldn’t kiss me!” Gigi whined again, flipping Crystal off.

“You’re the one who is making me wait to take me on a date. It’s your own fault,” Crystal reminded her, making Gigi try to prod at her side again. “Don’t stress, G. Spring break will be here before you know it.”

crystal: does everyone’s spring break start this weekend too?? anyone doing anything??

jan!: mine does! i’m staying home all week, jackie is leaving me :(

nicky: my spring break isn’t until late april!! wtf :(

heidi: ha loser

heidi: i’m going to play animal crossing all weekend and rock will probably come over <3 i can’t wait

nicky: i want a gf

heidi: ok

Jackie: I’m going to Canada to visit family on Sunday. Jan, if you want, we can hang out on Saturday if you’re going to miss me that much. :P

nicky: i’ll hang out with you jackie

jan: i hate you nicky

jaida: i have a pageant next week!!

jan!: yaas gorg

heidi: you’re going to be the best of the best jaida

nicky: bring home the crown!

crystal: GO JAIDA!

nicky: also jaida call me. i have good news for you :)

gigi: crystal you already know what’s going down

crystal: do i now?

gigi: GOOD LUCK JAIDA!!! NO MATTER WHAT U ARE OUR WINNER <33

Crystal had somewhat of an idea of what was going down. She had been granted permission to sleep over at Gigi’s house, and they would be going on their date the following day. Gigi would not tell the other girl anything about where they were going and refused to give her any real hints no matter how much she begged. 

“You tweeted about it. That’s all I’ll tell you.” Gigi had told her on the phone the night before, which wasn’t helpful at all because Crystal had almost thirty thousand tweets — her Twitter was her space to say weird things without being judged too harshly and she had a lot of things to say! 

She thought hard about things she might’ve tweeted about wanting to do, or places she wanted to go, but came up empty handed. The only thing she could find was her tweeting about how badly she wants to go see at least one of the One Direction boys in concert, but nothing that the cheerleader could pull off in a week’s time.

Gigi’s mom offered to pick them up after school that day, even though the walk from their school to her house wasn't that much further than the walk to Crystal’s. The green-haired girl finally met Nancy, Gigi's beloved Daschund. She didn't want to do anything besides hold the little dog to her chest all night, but the ginger wouldn't let her, saying it wasn't fair for Nancy to get all of the attention even though she does the exact same thing with TicTac.

They had spaghetti and meatballs with a side of garlic bread for dinner and ended up playing Monopoly with Gigi’s parents and one of her brothers. It was obvious to Crystal that he thought she was cute and proceeded to subtly flirt with her until it escalated to him trying out a ridiculous pickup line on the green-haired girl. When Crystal glanced over at the ginger, she was in the middle of rolling her eyes. She looked pissed and made it her mission to only target him as the game continued.

After an hour of playing the game, everyone decided to call it quits. Each member of the family parted ways after helping clean up, and Gigi swiftly dragged Crystal up into her bedroom.

“So quick to leave, Georgina,” Crystal teased, sitting down next to Nancy who had followed them into the room and made herself comfortable inside of the dog bed that was placed next to Gigi’s bed.

“I wanna spend time with just you, not my annoying brother. Can we cuddle?” Gigi asked nicely, climbing onto her bed. 

“Yeah, of course,” Crystal said, getting up and joining the ginger on the bed. They sat in a comfortable silence for a while, the shorter girl being the big spoon. 

“I did it,” Gigi said, breaking the silence, “Kind of. I told Naomi and Symone that I’m gay during lunch today.” 

“I’m so proud of you! How did it go?” Crystal asked, squeezing the ginger tight.

“It went really well!” Crystal could hear the smile in her voice, “They were super supportive, and it made me feel a lot better about everything. I’m not so scared at the idea of telling them that I’m trans, but I’m still not ready to do that yet.”

“That’s okay. You’re allowed to take your time.” The green-haired girl couldn’t believe that the same girl who was too scared to make a move on her earlier in the month had built up the courage to come out to her as trans, and to tell her cheerleader friends that she’s a lesbian. Crystal was so proud of Gigi finally being vulnerable. 

“They wanted to know about us as soon as the ‘Thank you for telling us!’ speech was over,” Gigi giggled, “I fucking knew they were onto me.” 

Crystal was intrigued by this. “What did they say? What did you say?” She prodded, accompanying each word with a poke in the side.

“I told them my secret plans and they think you’d be a fool not to become my girlfriend,” Gigi explained, grabbing the Latina’s hand. “And then Symone said she had never seen me look as happy as I did when we all had lunch together. Naomi agreed.”

Hearing that made Crystal’s heart melt; this was what she had wanted since the day she first suspected she might have feelings for a girl she had met on the internet. 

“You’re the sweetest,” she grinned, kissing the top of the ginger’s head.

“Will you kiss me for real this time?” Gigi asked, sitting up and turning around so she was facing the green-haired girl.

“Yeah. I’ve been trying to be a mean lesbian since you’ve made me wait so long for our date but you’re just too adorable not to kiss,” she smiled, pulling the taller girl closer to her.

Crystal had woken up first after a long night of cuddling, talking to and kissing Gigi. She didn’t bother waking up the sleeping girl, going to scroll through Twitter instead. 

It was pretty early, and the sun had barely begun to rise, but the group chat was still active. Jan had changed her display name to Nicky and changed her profile picture to Nicky’s to mock her. The French girl did not find this funny in the slightest, but Jaida was having the time of her life.

nicky: i’m nicky i’m french i love stealing my friends gfs

jaida: omg period!

THE REAL nicky: JAIDA THAT’S NOT ME!!!

jaida: proof?

THE REAL nicky: I HATE IT HERE!!

nicky: croissant

crystal: HELPDGNJKFNJ

THE REAL nicky: i cannot stand jan. this is why jackie should date me instead

Crystal couldn’t stop laughing at the word ‘croissant’, which ended up waking Gigi up. The ginger was annoyed at first when she looked at her phone and saw what time it was, but that changed when she realized they needed to get ready to go on the date she had planned.

After Gigi checked the group chat and saw what Crystal had been cackling at and encouraged Jan to continue bullying Nicky, they finally got up and dressed. Once the Latina returned from the bathroom (she had freaked out at the idea of seeing Gigi change), they sat next to each other in front of the giant, floor length mirror next to the closet to do their makeup. 

Gigi stopped doing her makeup after putting on her foundation, deciding that watching Crystal do her eye shadow was more entertaining than finishing the look she had in mind.

“Stop looking at me, you’re making me nervous!” Crystal giggled when she eventually noticed Gigi’s staring, not actually wanting the ginger to stop.

“I’ll think about it,” Gigi paused, pretending to think for a second, “I will not. You look beautiful.”

Crystal squawked; she wondered if she would ever get used to all of the compliments Gigi showered her with. “I barely have anything on my face!”

“So?” Gigi asked, not understanding what that had to do with anything.

“What are you, gay or something? Stop being a dork and finish your makeup!”

Gigi rolled her eyes and picked up the brush she needed for the next step, “Fine. Only because we need to get going soon.”

The two managed to get ready with little distraction, but Gigi did insist on taking a ton of mirror selfies before they finally made their way into the garage and in her mom’s car.

“Wait, you know how to drive?” Crystal asked, getting in the passenger seat. She had been so fixated on the idea of going on a proper date with Gigi that she hadn’t even considered how they were going to get to the mystery locations until now.

“Yeah! I don't have my own car yet, but I got my license on my 16th birthday. I am not enforcing the stereotype at all!” Gigi grinned, opening the garage door and starting her mom’s car. “I’ve only crashed the car once.”

“Why would you say that now?” Crystal squawked, covering her mouth with her hand. 

The ginger shrugged at that, not concerned about it so the Latina decided to move on. “Can I at least play music?”

“Yeah, sure.” Gigi handed her the aux cord and started carefully backing out of the driveway. 

“Okay. This is the ultimate test for my love,” Crystal stated, starting to play a Niall Horan song. “Which One Direction song is this?” 

The idea of tricking Gigi was hilarious to her, and she hadn’t been able to do it while they were just online friends.

“Is it from ‘Made in the A.M’?” Gigi asked about a minute into listening. “It sounds newer, but I don’t remember ever listening to this one. Niall has a lot of solos in this!”

“Trick question! It’s one of Niall’s solo songs. It’s called ‘Nice to Meet Ya’!” Crystal laughed, thinking she had pulled off the biggest prank in the world.

“Oh, fuck. I should've known it was only Niall. He’s literally my favorite!”

“It was a good guess. At least you could tell it was him,” Crystal tried to reassure her through giggles before it dawned on her that she had somehow forgotten to make Gigi listen to his solo albums. She could fix that later.

After fifteen minutes of driving and Gigi almost running a stop sign, they finally pulled up at a cute little thrift shop that the Latina had never been to before. Crystal was just about shaking with excitement as she read the sign when Gigi turned into the parking lot. 

“I love thrifting! I’ve only gone a few times, but it was so fun! That’s where I found the jumpsuit I wore when we got lunch with Symone and Naomi!” she rambled, rushing to unbuckle her seatbelt, get out of the car and go inside.

“Wait, when did I tweet about this?” The green-haired girl asked as Gigi locked the car doors. She figured she must have mentioned it at some point, but she tweeted a lot and couldn’t remember everything . 

“You said you liked it when you first introduced yourself. And then you said that going thrifting with a cute girl was your dream date like a week later. And I am a cute girl.” She mentioned casually, and Crystal felt the urge to push Gigi up against the hood of her mom’s car and kiss her again.

She managed to fight this urge and they started their walk from the parking lot to the store. Crystal held her hand out, which Gigi hesitantly accepted. She felt like their hands fit perfectly together and she wanted to hold the ginger’s hand as long as possible. 

“We should play a game! We should split up and pick out an outfit for the other person without them knowing and then try them on!” Crystal suggested as they approached the entrance. 

“That sounds fun, but how do I know this isn't just a trick to dress me up in something hideous?” Gigi teased, making Crystal blush.

“I would never, don’t be ridiculous,” she scoffed, “I’ll save that for the next time we go thrifting!” Crystal let go of Gigi’s hand to open the door for her, splitting up as soon as they walked into the shop.

It didn't take them very long to pick out their pieces. Crystal stayed true to her word, picking out a cute outfit that she thought the taller girl would like and also look amazing in. Gigi, on the other hand, only picked out ugly pieces with bolder patterns that would never go together no matter how hard Crystal tried to style them. 

“Gigi, what is that?” Crystal scrunched up her nose in disgust, refusing to take the clothes from her date.

“What’s wrong with them? You like patterns, why not clash them?” Gigi tried to defend herself but could barely finish her sentence before bursting into laughter.

“No! I’m not getting that! I’m not even going to try on that outfit. It’s yucky.”

“That's fine, give me the clothes you picked out for me. I need them.” Gigi snatched the clothes from Crystal's hands, walking quickly to the dressing room. The Latina was right, the outfit looked gorgeous on Gigi; she was so glad she took their game seriously. 

They looked around together for a little bit, making fun of the ridiculous graphic t-shirts that littered the women’s section before wandering from each other yet again. Gigi somehow ended up with a pile of clothes that you would only see in a very successful thrifting haul video on YouTube. 

Crystal mostly browsed the men's section, immediately pulling some loud button ups off of the rack. With a little digging, she found some very specific t-shirts but the one that she decided she needed to take home was one that said how 'real grandmas drink Dr. Pepper’. She found it hysterical and needed it in her wardrobe, even if she never would wear it outside of the privacy of her own home.

"What does that say? Some grandmas play bingo, real grandmas drink Dr. Pepper?" Gigi questioned when they finally met back up and were showing each other what they had found, "What does that even mean?"

"I don't know but I need it!"

“So you hated my wonderful outfit I got for you, but you’re buying that?” Gigi teased, playfully rolling her eyes.

“You do not understand the art of highly specific shirts like these, babe. I’ll have to teach you all about them later.” Crystal knew that Gigi thought she was an idiot, but the green-haired girl couldn't stop smiling.

Not wanting to leave so soon, they decided to wander around the rest of the thrift shop, taking their time to look at all of the miscellaneous items. Crystal started keeping track of how many Rae Dunn branded items were sitting on the shelves and would read the words and phrases on said items out loud in a funny accent, something that Gigi found so entertaining that sometimes she would laugh so hard she’d go silent. 

Crystal did end up finding some gems, such as a little clown figurine and Gigi found a vintage Barbie that she fell in love with the second she saw it sitting among the other dolls. 

As they walked back to the car, Crystal checked her phone for the time and realized that they had spent over two hours there, which was bizarre to her. She would’ve guessed it had been less than an hour but maybe the saying was right: Time does fly when you’re having fun.

“I think you should tell me where we’re going. Just in case you get lost,” Crystal offered, once they got back on the road and on the way to the next secret location. The fact that the ginger wouldn’t tell her a single thing was driving her up the wall. “Please?”

“I’m not gonna get lost,” was Gigi’s monotone response.

“I’ve lived here longer than you have. You might get lost.” Crystal playfully argued, but dropped it the second Gigi pulled into the Taco Bell drive through.

“Okay, I do remember tweeting about wanting to go to Taco Bell. Daya stopped there on her way home from work on Wednesday and didn’t even bring me anything!” She exclaimed, pouting at the memory. “She wouldn’t even let me take a sip of her Baja Blast.”

“That’s actually a nightmare! Luckily for you, I’m so nice. What do you want?” 

They ended up getting a small feast, including two Baja Blasts. Unfortunately for Crystal, Gigi kept the bag of food on her lap as she started driving to what she said would be the last secret location.

“I’d let you eat in the car, but it’s our first date and I want it to be more memorable,” the ginger grinned.

“You’ve made it very special, G. Not that I have anything to compare it to, but you’re doing amazing.” It meant a lot to Crystal how close the cheerleader paid attention to the words that came out of her mouth, even the smaller things.

The final location was a cute little park that Crystal hadn’t visited since her and Daya were little. There was a playground, a little community garden and a large empty field next to a pond that had a large duck population.

“Can you find a spot to sit down at so we can eat it there?” Gigi requested as she put the car in park. Crystal nodded, going to settle down in a shady spot underneath some trees. Gigi eventually joined Crystal, holding a blue blanket as well as the Taco Bell bag.

“It’s not a picnic blanket, I couldn't find one but I hope it works.”

“It does! I love picnics!” Crystal hopped up so Gigi could lay down the blanket, going back to the car to get their Baja Blasts that the taller girl couldn’t carry with the blanket and the bag. 

“Did you really think that Nicky and I were dating?” Gigi questioned once they had divided up their food and started to eat.

“I mean, yeah? You two were always so flirty with each other and then there was the day where you sent her a bunch of tweets saying how perfect and beautiful she was. I figured you two were a thing and it made me really jealous,” Crystal admitted, feeling even more silly about her assumptions now that she was certain Gigi would be her girlfriend in a number of hours.

“That was like, before we even started to talk outside of the group chat!” Gigi gasped, “I figured you started liking me after that.”

“Is that when you started liking me?” Crystal asked, curious to see if she was the only one to develop feelings so soon.

Gigi giggled nervously, putting down her taco to play with her hair. “Ummm… I realized I liked you the day before I asked you about One Direction. When did you start liking me?”

“Before you did. Daya thought I was absolutely ridiculous when I told her but it looks like I’m not the only one.”

“Jan thought I was ridiculous too! She made fun of me for days when she stalked my Spotify and saw that I had a playlist of songs that remind me of you,” Gigi casually mentioned before taking a long sip of her Baja Blast.

“What?” Crystal was intrigued by the news of a playlist. “You have a playlist for me?”

“Of your favorite One Direction songs, Golden, and Sunflower, Volume Six,” Gigi elaborated, her face turning a similar color as her hair. 

“You’re the cutest, you know that?”

Once they were done eating, Gigi collected all of the wrappers and cups, walking across the grass to the nearest trash can to dispose of them. 

When Gigi came back, she had a huge grin on her face and was holding a small box that the Latina hadn’t noticed until then. “Well, Crystal Elizabeth. I would like to think that I successfully wooed you, if only you could do something for me in return…”

“What do you have in mind, Georgina?” Crystal giggles, hoping Gigi couldn't tell how nervous that statement made her. “What’s with the box, are you proposing?”

The cheerleader handed over the box and Crystal opened it, seeing a necklace that was identical to the one that she had that said ‘Gigi’ on it. The name ‘Crystal’ looked absolutely beautiful in the silver lettering and while it wasn’t anything like a necklace she had ever owned before, she decided that she wouldn’t take it off once it was around her neck.

“Crystal Elizabeth, I was wondering if you would like to be my girlfriend?” 

“God, of course I want to be your girlfriend. I’ve been waiting for this for months.” Crystal exclaimed, immediately being pulled into a kiss. Neither of them could stop smiling and the green-haired girl couldn’t remember the last time she felt so happy and loved. 

After they pulled away from each other, Gigi insisted that Crystal turn around and lift her hair off of her neck so the ginger could put the necklace on her. 

“I don’t want the day to end just yet. Do you want to walk around the park?” Gigi asked as she clasped the necklace. Crystal liked the idea and quickly stood up and started walking towards the playground.

“Wait, Crystal! Come here, the light looks good right now and we need to take our reveal selfie!”

“Didn’t we already do that before we left?” Crystal asked, thinking back to how Gigi took at least ten pictures of them in her mirror before heading out.

“That was before you got the necklace though!” The taller girl insisted, and it dawned on the Latina that the more pictures they had together, the better.

Crystal finally managed to get Gigi to come to the playground with her, going down the slide a couple of times before one of the swings she wanted to go on was finally available. She rushed over to claim it, trying to get swinging before requesting her girlfriend to come over and push her.

Gigi did just that, pushing Crystal until she was so high that the ginger couldn’t push on her back anymore. By the time that happened, the swing next to her opened up so the taller girl took a seat and joined in on the fun.

After Crystal attempted at jumping off the swing gracefully and failed miserably, they made their way over to the duck pond. 

“I am so dumb! My mom asked if I was going to bring bread with me and I was so confused but I just realized what she was talking about.” Gigi facepalmed as the pond came into view. 

“That’s okay! I feel like I saw a tweet saying that bread is bad for them anyway,” Crystal comforted her, reaching out to hold her hand.

Even though they didn’t get to feed the ducks, or even see one on the shore, the Latina was just happy to be there, enjoying the day with her new girlfriend. She couldn’t help but feel giddy every time she thought about the fact that Gigi and her were officially together. 

Just months before she had met her new friends, Crystal had cried herself to sleep on the night of the Homecoming dance because she didn’t get asked and was convinced that she would never find someone who wanted to be around her without an ulterior motive, let alone want to kiss her and date her. She wished there was a way to tell her past self “Hey, hang in there. Your spring break is going to start by Georgina Goode the cheerleader taking you on a date!” , even though her past self wouldn’t be convinced it was true. 

The two girls found themselves sitting down by the pond, watching the ducks swim around in the distance. Gigi’s head had made its way into Crystal’s lap, tracing the bold pattern on the shorter girl’s pants as Crystal started working on a daisy chain small enough for the ginger to wear as a bracelet. 

“I feel bad that I didn’t get you a present. I made you this.” Crystal said, bringing the daisy chain to her attention. Gigi lifted her head up and extended her arm out so the Latina could put it on her wrist.

“This is so cute!” she squealed, moving her wrist around as she admired it. “I’ll cherish it forever, even after the flowers die.”

Crystal knew their date was coming to an end. They were going on hour six of their date, and as much as she would love to spend the entire week with Gigi, they were going to run out of things to do. 

She went to check her phone since she had barely been on it since Jan was pretending to be Nicky and saw a text from her mom, asking to come home. Crystal’s mom had no idea what she was interrupting, as the green-haired girl conveniently forgot to mention to her mom that she had a date. She showed Gigi her phone screen, the ginger letting out a sigh before they started making their way back to the car.

“I really had the best time today, Gigi,” Crystal said for what felt like the millionth time that day as she buckled her seatbelt. 

“Me too… Also, if there's any other place you want to go this week, we could go on our second date.” Gigi grinned, reaching out to hold Crystal's hand. “I just want to keep spending time with you now that I know you aren’t a billion miles away. And also my girlfriend.”

“Be careful, I know steering with one hand is peak lesbianism, but I don't know if you're a good enough driver to do that yet,” Crystal joked, even though she gladly accepted Gigi’s hand.

“Oh, shut up. Like you could go ten minutes without holding my hand.”

“This was fun. I really am happy with everything. You completely wooed me, Georgina,” Crystal said as they pulled up onto the street she lived on, Gigi parking a few houses down so they could have some privacy.

“I feel like we keep saying that to each other,” The ginger observed, making sure she got one last kiss before unlocking the doors so Crystal could get out.

“It’s true though, isn’t it?”

They had a dramatic goodbye before Crystal made her way down the sidewalk and entered her house, her grin slowly fading when she saw her mom waiting for her.

“You usually wanted to come home from sleepovers before ten in the morning when you were in elementary school,” Crystal’s mom started, under the impression she had been at Gigi’s house all day, “What took you so long?”

“Yeah, sorry. We got wrapped up in a movie we were watching and then I couldn't find my charger.” Crystal felt bad for lying to her mom, but she didn't want to tell her what happened yet.

“Don’t apologize, I’m glad you have a friend you want to spend time with. Just text me if you’re going to be out all day next time.”

“It won't happen again, Mama. I’m going to my room now, is that okay?”

“Yeah, I'm about to start dinner. We’re having your favorite! Hopefully your sister will be home before I’m done.”

The second Crystal got into her room, she locked her door and jumped on her bed, logging onto Twitter to check in with her friends to pass the time before dinner.

crystal: good evening l a d i e s

jan!: HEY!!

jaida: crystal!

Jackie: You haven't been active today, what were you up to?

heidi: not jackie demanding answers

nicky: ooooh  i wonder what could’ve happened today ;)

gigi: well, since you asked…

crystal: :D

gigi: my GIRLFRIEND crystal and i went on our first date today. isn't she beautiful??

The group erupted into chaos the second they saw the selfie they took at the park, congratulating the new couple for finally getting together. 

Crystal wouldn’t have it any other way. She would be forever grateful for being added into what was now called “Gay People”, and even more for the special girl she had met there.

She switched over to the direct message she had gotten from Gigi, grinning ear to ear yet again as she read it.

gigi: so, any ideas for our second date?